Sean Lemass

Sean Lemass (15 July 1899-11 May 1971) was Taoiseach of Ireland from 23 June 1959 to 10 November 1966, succeeding Eamon de Valera and preceding Jack Lynch. He was a member of Fianna Fail.

Biography
Sean Lemass was born in Ballybrack, County Dublin, Ireland in 1899, and he joined the Irish Volunteers militant nationalists at age 15. He fought in the 1916 Easter Rising, and on the anti-treaty side in the Irish Civil War. He was captured by the Irish Free State forces and imprisoned from December 1922 to December 1923. He was a founding member of Fianna Fail, and helped build its organization at the grass roots. He entered the Dail Eireann in 1925 for Dublin city and remained its member until his retirement in 1969. He became Minister for Industry and Commerce in Eamon de Valera's governments from 1932 to 1948, 1951 to 1954, and 1957 to 1959. He succeeded De Valera as Taoiseach in June 1959. Lemass spent most of his premiership building up industry. He used tariffs, tax holidays for foreign companies settling in Ireland, and the establishment of new government-commerce cooperative bodies to promote native industry. The economy improved significantly in the early 1960s, and Lemass laid the plans for Ireland's entry in the European Economic Community, which eventually bore fruit in 1973. His other major accomplishment was his meeting in 1965 with the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, and his instigation of a more pragmatic attitude towards the north. Upon his retirement, he was succeeded by Jack Lynch.